Adult day center opens in Chillicothe

A new business opened its doors today (Tuesday) with the goal of serving Chillicothe's seniors. Bella-Brooke Adult Day Center, located at 1115 Second Street, welcomed the public to an open house from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. today. A Chillicothe Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting was held at 10 a.m.

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Chillicothe News - Chillicothe, MO

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Posted Jul. 30, 2013 at 2:16 PM

Posted Jul. 30, 2013 at 2:16 PM

A new business opened its doors today (Tuesday) with the goal of serving Chillicothe's seniors. Bella-Brooke Adult Day Center, located at 1115 Second Street, welcomed the public to an open house from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. today. A Chillicothe Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting was held at 10 a.m.

The idea behind the adult day center, owned by Geri Taylor Curtis and Diana Deardorff, is to provide quality care, education and support to ailing and/or impaired adults and their caregivers in Chillicothe and the surrounding areas.

“The purpose of our facility is to give family members and caregivers a place that they can bring their loved ones to get a break,” Curtis said. “They may have to work during the day and they're just not comfortable leaving them at home by themselves or they just need that extra break to run errands or just get a sense of relief. Caregiving is a very difficult job, it's a difficult task. When you're trying to take care of an ailing loved one, it gets very stressful. The purpose of opening the facility is to have a place where they can bring that loved one for a few hours or five days a week.”

Bella-Brooke will serve as a medical facility. Curtis and Deardorff have have over 50 combined years of health care experience. Their facility will offer medication administration, personal hygiene care, wound and dressing care, nutritional meals, vital signs monitoring, as well as mental and physical exercises. The day center also plans to provide a number of activities to accommodate the client's various hobbies.

“We have a lot of possibilities,” Curtis said. “We want to do it based on each individual interest and their capabilities. Weather permitting, we can go outside and putter in the back yard. Inside, we have checkers. We can do embroidery, sewing. Whatever they're interested in, we can find a way of working around it to build on that.”

The name Bella-Brooke comes from the names Curtis' two dogs that will frequent the facility. Deardorff said the animals provide an element of care that the caregivers can't.

“Statistics show it does lower the blood pressure and increases the immune system,” Deardorff explained. “They also have a calming effect. They help with stress. The dogs can give more than what we can in a very different way.”

Bella-Brooke Adult Day Center is open from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 660-646-1595.